This is the second of the Butterfly tiles. I used a photograph of an American Painted Lady as a reference. I learned from my faerie dolls that butterfly wings done from memory don’t usually look good, unless the artist is also a student of butterflies.

On this one I used the Duncan “French Impressions” glaze/paste underneath the low fired glazes.

I bought some glaze/paste called “French Impressions” by Duncan that I hoped would create the same effect as the tinted slip trail, yet not have to be done at the greenware stage.  The bottle said nothing about whether it had to be done under or over the glaze, so I tried it both ways. Equal success.

This one has the “French Impressions” impasto/glaze stuff over the low fired glaze.

Finally got my kiln working, and was able to glaze some of the tiles I’d made last year (or was it two years ago?)  I had the idea of basing some tiles off of the Tarot, because Tarot cards are defined enough to provide concrete parameters, yet still have room for personal interpretation.  I doubt I will do the entire deck.

To make this design, I used B-mix clay and a slab roller. Then I tinted some b-mix slip with black stain and used a jacquard bottle to trail the lines.  It is neither easy nor the best technique.

Nopales (Prickly pear cactus) and Agaves are among my favorite botanical subjects.  Oaks and blackberry brambles are the others, but those are harder to find. The design was made freehand with slip trailed from a jacquard bottle, like the others.  After the fact, I found that it’s much easier to get the look I wanted simply by using three dimensional low-fired glaze called ‘French Expressions’ from Duncan. 

This is one of the tiles I have up at my etsy shop.  I did it about two years ago, along with most of my other tiles.  It took a long time to make these tiles, because I had to pound the clay flat by hand, using a special mallet.  I got pretty good at it. I could have rolled them, but they warp much less when they’re pounded than when they’re rolled.  After I cut it to shape, I drew the design freehand with a jacquard bottle filled with slip.  Then I fired it, painted on the low-fired glazes, and fired it again.  This was back when my kiln was still working.